1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus and, more particularly, to a facsimile apparatus in which disposition of a light emitting unit for emitting beams on a document is changed and thereby the front portion of the facsimile apparatus is made smaller in height.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the optical system for reading a document in a facsimile apparatus 100 so far in use, there have been provided, as shown in FIG. 6, a light emitting unit 101, a first reflection mirror 103 for changing the direction of outgoing beams B102 for reading, which are incoming beams from the light emitting unit 101 reflected on the surface of the document, a second reflection mirror 104 for inverting the direction of the outgoing beams B102 for reading, and a light sensing unit 105.
The light emitting unit is disposed on a side opposite to the direction of feed of the document with respect to a normal plane perpendicular to the surface of the document on a reading line as a start point of the outgoing beams for reading so that the outgoing beams for reading are emitted from the document surface in substantially the vertical direction.
The reason why the light emitting unit is so disposed, in which the outgoing beams for reading are emitted from the document surface in substantially the vertical direction, is because it is therefore ensured that the document is correctly read even if the position of the document at the reading line is deviated upward or downward from the proper level due to distortion of the document or the like, and also the outgoing beams for reading are intensified, and reliability of the reading is secured.
The outgoing beams for reading suffer a change in their advancing direction at the first reflection mirror and suffer a change in their advancing direction again at the second reflection mirror disposed in the rear of the interior of the body frame, to be introduced into the light sensing unit disposed below the light emitting unit.
The light emitting unit is structured such that the incoming beams emitted from a plurality of light emitting elements enter directly to the document, not via a condenser lens. Further, a document presser for pressing the document downward to a glass plate supporting the document in the vicinity of the reading line is swingably supported by the body frame through pins at the right and left ends, and it is adapted to slightly press the document by its own weight.
There have been such problems with the above described conventional facsimile apparatus in that the first reflection mirror having a large width in the lateral direction has to be installed near the document, it is difficult to incorporate the first reflection mirror with high precision, the front portion of the facsimile apparatus becomes larger in height and difficult to reduce its thickness, the degree of freedom in designing is lower because the light sensing unit is disposed below the light emitting unit, and it is difficult to incorporate the second reflection mirror and the light sensing unit with high accuracy because they are formed independently.
Here, the outgoing beams for reading may be arranged to be emitted at an angle larger than a right angle with respect to the surface of the document. Then, however, such a problem may arise that reliability of the reading is lowered due to the distortion of the document in the reading line.